Mwalimu (teacher) Evie at SEGA. Monday 26 September. Term 4 starts.

 7.05am...First day of term waiting at the end of my track on Dodoma Rd for Sablano and the Day girls to collect us.

To put some light on our story so far:

Poor Evie....she had really had the Tz experience everything done...even showering, by candles..no fridge so food spoiled... all so regular in Tz!!.....We couldn't restore the umeme until late on Sunday night....The fundis who had been working on my house before I had gone to Dar to meet Evie, 12 days prior, had blown a fuse and my house had not had electricity since then. We had checked fuses etc when the umeme failed to return after adding the new voucher... but needed to be restored by the umeme fundi. Lights on and a meal prepared by the illumination of electricity.....

15 minutes of umeme then Tanesco decided to take it away from us and put us back in the dark! 

Dinner by candlelight again! 

Just as well Evie loves candles!

 Mmmmmm....I knew we had left my place at 7am as the bus usually arrives 7.10am

At 7.30am, thinking that the bus must have had problems, I rang Sablano to be told...

"Oh Madam Fran we already nearly at school!!"

Sablano is the only Tz consistently early!

We had not only missed the bus but missed the ride with Peter, the school driver as he had a car full of teachers so I had to call taxi Moodie...again!

Hamna shida...no problem...we still arrived at school in time for assembly and to have the girls greet Evie with their warmly sung Welcome Visitors song. It always makes me smile!

  The ever thoughtful Happy Job with her welcome notice.

As it was the start of term the PreFormals were busily cleaning their environment before lessons could begin. I left Evie with them on tour of the school and their gardens and sharing their morning as I quickly opened Kelly and waded through the log of 'to dos'...

 Nasura, Sauda, Evie, Vaselista (front)

 Unbeknown to me, Evie was not joined by a Tz teacher for the whole 4 morning lessons. In true teacher form she jumped in and organised some productive activities using the reading books she had brought from Aus.She and her friends and some of our family had donated them to our library for which we are truly thankful....

ASANTE SANA rafiki zetu tamu.THANK YOU SO MUCH our dear friends.

 8am - 11.20am...Evie held the fort in the classroom then was relieved to be escorted the kitchen bundas to enjoy a Chai break of  Mkete, karunga siagi na chai tamu. Bread rolls, peanut butter and sweet tea.

The girls started to arrive at my outdoor office in the big bunda as we wound down our intense, but productive meeting between the English staff: myself, Maraji Magonja and Kennedy Wilson.

We were busily planning our Intensive English program using the Baseline curriculum originally developed by the Tz government together with VSO; and the SEGA Comprehensive English program....both which we have successfully implemented as the Pre Formal curriculum for this term. It was a rushed start and there are challenges we will iron out, but it is happening!! That is certainly a fantastic achievement and a real reflection on the willingness of our current staff to have a go at new things. Let's hope it keeps going well as our girls are so keen to master their English!

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Evie and I with my dear friend and dada Rehama Choga...She welcomed Elena, Camilla and I into Tz and taught us how to survive Tz style!

From Chai to observing classes then back for more food at lunch: Ugali, maharage na chungwa. Ugali and beans and an orange.

Enjoying the spontaneous Kiswahili/English lessons and seated with Suzana, on the way home.

Tume choka...We were tired!

 "Kwa Heri...Goodbye Madam Yvonne and Madam Fran...See you tomorrow, Have a good night...Usiku mwema.  Mungu ibariki sisi, God Bless you."

The girls always say this to me as I leave them but now they are practising English in every part of their day so it is always said in English. I get chastised if I use Kiswahili!

Farewell safari...Hello Morogoro!

 Farewell Ngorogoro NP and Serengeti NP as we headed over the range of The Rift Valley through Manyara where we stopped at a local duka so that Evie could take some memorabilia home with her

....then on to Mbo wa  Mbu (Mosquito River!) 

This area is renowned for their very sweet red bananas...we stopped to buy some and found ourselves bargaining for paintings and candlesticks. Supporting the locals!

 Finally we arrived in Arusha, tried to get cash from several different ATMs...to no avail...and eventually after we were treated to another spectacular sunset, we unpacked at our new, almost 5 star guest house and given royal treatment:  Korona House (+255687666808). We were their only guests and it is about 20 minutes out of central Arusha, in the nice area of Njiro. Brand new and run by Tanzanians we promised we would give them a plug because they were so lovely to us and the room, restaurant, menu, chef, waiter etc etc....met our every need!

Our stay in luxurywas short lived as we had breakfast at 5am and were sitting at the bus depot just before 6am!

 A quick stop for lunch having stopped about an hour before for a toilet stop...No toilets just open air, lots of women and girls, and a few trees to hide behind. We were grateful that we had spent years as kids, having to squat behind trees for a 'bush wee' as we worked for hours up in the paddocks...
I was wondering whether anyone would miss this bus. Last time I was at this stop Phyl and I nearly got left behind. We had had a very quick loo stop, grabbed some food and headed out the door to see the tail end of our big red ABOOD bus as it attempted to leave the large carpark!!! I sprinted after it and several other Tz travellers also moved faster than usual, yelling and shouting for it to stop...which it finally did! We were so lucky that there were Tz people as well as us, who nearly missed their ride, otherwise it would have kept going!

 Tourist Evie was determined to capture everything on camera...as you do....but this man wanted compensation for her stealing his face...He demanded his bag of oranges had to be bought...but the bus moved on and Evie kept her money!
Nearly 9 hours after leaving Arusha, we rolled into Morogoro. I was so excited to have Evie there with me. Moodie, my regular taxi had responded to my call and was there to greet us. We needed to go straight into town to get to the bank before it closed so dumped our bags and headed back out with Moodie. Oh dear....Hamna umeme at home but no time to get a voucher yet...later!

 We missed the bank but managed to get an ATM to respond positively then did the regular Posta check...I was excited to find that I had a parcel waiting for me but would have to wait until later in the week when the Posta was open.

 Looking away from the centre of town back along Old Dar Road towards the roundabout...Posta is on its right.

 Some supplies to sustain us but as there was no electricity at home (I do have a gas cooker!) but little energy to cook we chose sundowners at Oasis and another taxi ride home.

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Saturday I was involved in a day long SEGA 3 year strategic planning meeting so I had arranged Subira and Lucy to collect Evie and show her around Morogoro. What better than to have the local girls share their own environments. All three of them were really excited and a bit nervous to start with but their day was rewarding as they shared so willingly and  genuinely with Evie..

 Visiting Lucy's family

 Ugali na marahage...ugali and beans...lucky I had taught Evie how to eat using ugali!

 Shalin, SEGA's Business Consultant who had run our meeting, and I met Evie for sundowners at  The Gymkhana Golf Club then Indian @ Oasis for dinner.

 During this time of year the winds whip up and become very strong in the evenings causing red dust to find every nook and cranny to settle in. It also causes quite a lot of damage. Luckily my washing line was strong and taught enough to protect the bananas from too much damage! I have since shared this bunch with the gang at SEGA!

Sunday we finally had time to go to Tanesco and buy an electricity voucher.

 Umeme please!

 We visited my local sokoni where Evie met my favourite dadas. They were excited to have their pics taken especially by my sister from Australia! I learned a new swahili word whilst Evie and I were on safari: yenye kufanana which means: you are similar...except Evie is mrefu (tall) and I am short (fupi) The women were excitedly using these words and I was happy to be able to join in with their discussion.

 Visiting some of my local dukas (shops) in search of kitenges for Sandie.

 We had been luck to have some rain which settled the fine red dust so walking was enjoyable. Lots of friendly children and locals greeted us as we strolled my neighborhood.

 I treated Evie to Sunday lunch of Chipsie mayae, beer&coke at my favorite local bar ...

My own Resort at my back door!!

 

Chipsie mayae and coke...(nearly nutritious...there is egg in there!)

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In strolled a young goat (mbusi) which, here in Tz, is eaten and enjoyed as much as lamb is in Australia! he seemed to be heading straight to the kitchen....Oh DEAR.little did he know that he could become the next offering of mishikaki (kebabs)..!

The added advantage of the Resort is that it has its own little supermarket...

What more could a person want?!